While on the one hand the prime minister is busy preparing for his trip to the US, the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh is working on trying to increase its public presence in Europe. A prominent Sangh leader Dattatreya Hosabole is in London at present, where Sangh’s associate bodies are being brought together. During his stay in London, Hosbole met with writer and former head of conservative party Jeffrey Archer. Apart from this, he had a long meeting with a Member of Parliament of the Conservative Party Bob Blackwell. It is worth mentioning here that Blackwell has been taking an active part in the Sangh programmes in the past, too. From here, Hosbole will be going to Paris through the Skytrain. He then plans to go to the Netherlands and Italy; he is going to address people of Surinami origin in the Netherlands. It is believed that he might take a tour to the Vatican to meet the Pope. In the past, Manmohan Vaid has also established Sangh’s branches in Italy and France. Based on the Vatican model, the Sangh also wants to propagate about itself in Western countries; the Sangh has been active in countries such as Switzerland. It is worth mentioning that when Swami Vivekananda went to Switzerland in 1896, a large crowd was there to listen to his speech. Dattareya had written an article during the Football World Cup “Vasudev Kutamabakam: And football”, which somehow reached the Pope, who is also a big football fanatic. So he called up the Indian ambassador in the Vatican and expressed his interest in meeting Hosbole. Because the Indian ambassador Lokesh and Hosbole are both from Karnataka, they have known each other for some time. It is believed that during his meeting with the Pope, Hosbole may raise the issue of conversions that have been happening on a large scale in India. In any case, the tradition of Sangh sending its pracharaks to foreign lands is an old one. Before him, Soumitra Gokhale, Ram Vaid and Ram Madhav have been carrying it out for a long time.